UK Pirate Party Pressured Into Taking Down Proxy... Leading To Other Proxies Opening Up

from the if-you-need-to-whac-a-mole dept

It's really quite ridiculous how much time, money and effort the various arms of the entertainment industry have spent trying to get certain countries to "block" The Pirate Bay. Every single time it happens, it seems to drive up traffic to the site. Those who want to use it don't suddenly decide "gee, now I'm going to start buying what I formerly pirated." They just think "where's a proxy to get to the site" and they find one easily enough because they're everywhere. The industry then goes on a wild goose chase seeking to take them all down which is impossible. So they get a few morale-boosting wins... and everyone still gets to go to The Pirate Bay. Couldn't that time be spent more effectively?

The latest is that, over in the UK, where BPI (the UK equivalent of the RIAA) was threatening to sue the leaders of the UK Pirate Party personally for setting up a proxy, the Party eventually shut it down knowing that the costs of fighting such a legal battle would be extreme and damaging.

But, of course, it's unlikely that actually stopped anyone from reaching TPB, which is available through a variety of other means. In fact, soon after the UK Pirate Party took down its proxy, the Pirate Parties in some other countries put up their own proxies (and, of course, there are tons of general proxies out there). BPI can try to go after these political parties in other countries, or it can demand that ISPs block those proxies also, but more and more will just keep popping up. And none of that will convince a single person to buy something they weren't planning to buy in the first place. It just makes you wonder what they think they're accomplishing.

Reader Comments

I think this was more about pushing PPUk down specifically; our proxy was one of the most high-profile in the UK and was considered "trusted" by many (presumably due to the lack of adverts, trackers etc. - although if we'd had adverts on it we might have been able to afford the case). Plus I think we were also one of the more visible symbols of resistance to their evil schemes.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things it is fairly pointless, and I wonder how much the BPI spent on lawyers - particularly given all their money would otherwise be going to artists etc., and we're the ones supposedly stealing millions from artists...

Firstly, it is a completely pointless action because there are so many other proxies and ways to circumvent the block available.

Secondly, the fact that a political party (even a minor one) can be bullied and censored in this way by an unelected and unaccountable organisation is a serious worry for anyone who values Democracy and freedom of speech. It shows us all just what a sham western democracy really is.

I went to Google and did a search for a proxy to get around the Pirate Party proxy shutdown and I got a list of 100's of proxies so a complete waste of time of the BPI in forcing the Pirate Party to shutdown it's proxy server. The BPI and other entertainment industries will no doubt at some point sue Google for facilitating copyright infringement for providing the names of details of proxies in its list and also forcing it to de-list every proxy on the planet from its index. Well there are other search engines on the internet that other people will use. BPI can also demand and even force the ISP's in the UK to block all these proxies but it will be a complete waste of time as other proxies will open up. BPI's and the entertainment industries efforts are just a futile wac-a-mole game that they will never win.

OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

'Those who want to use it don't suddenly decide "gee, now I'm going to start buying what I formerly pirated."' ... 'And none of that will convince a single person to buy something they weren't planning to buy in the first place.' -- You make the most amazing admissions, Mike. What keeps me here is trying to decide whether you KNOW that you're totally inconsistent, and whether you think you're fooling anyone besides your fanboy-trolls. My opinion so far is that you get so wrapped up in your ONE view of matters that you don't grasp the admissions you incidentally make, and/or think that your fanboy-trolls have the memory of gnats.

Anyhoo, with that admission you acknowledge that knowing infringement is going on and that "pirates" -- YOUR TERM for someone who's knowingly "pirated" -- are NEVER going to pay for content. That's same as justifying all efforts against piracy. The one thing that's solid about all of copyright is that those who created the content by paying for it have sole right to control its distribution; it wouldn't exist without them. No one has an intrinsic right to access it without helping pay for it.

2nd anyhoo: once the blocking is in place, it becomes just a matter of adding IP/host name to the database, can be rolled out automatically, and will be, so the end of proxies is in sight. VPNs can be shut down by following to last known exit. Deep-packet inspections will easily shut down those who UPload beyond a certain ratio. -- In short, obvious measures WILL work well enough, so you pirates can expect your plundering on the net to end soon.

Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

"2nd anyhoo: once the blocking is in place, it becomes just a matter of adding IP/host name to the database, can be rolled out automatically, and will be, so the end of proxies is in sight. VPNs can be shut down by following to last known exit. Deep-packet inspections will easily shut down those who UPload beyond a certain ratio. -- In short, obvious measures WILL work well enough, so you pirates can expect your plundering on the net to end soon."

The fact that censorship and DPI seems to be perfectly ok to you scares the shit out of me.

Re: Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

Deep-packet inspections will easily shut down those who UPload beyond a certain ratio

Lets just hope that it is not a tele-surgery in progress and the surgeon didn't just got disconnected when trying to reattach someones testicles.

Or God forbid law enforcement trying to exchange intelligence on crime issues.

Or researches trying to upload huge datasets for others to take a peek and help with the research.

Or somebody working from home and telecommuting.

Or and this may be the worse case scenario, a gamer gets fragged because he was disconnected.

Never mind the huge volume of data that is encrypted in financial institutions and the billions of micro transactions that happen every hour, that actually I wouldn't mind that much, even though I know it would be bad very bad.

Re: Re: Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

The IP maximalists have already shown that they are willing to kill democracy for the sake of their profits, why wouldn't they also be willing to sacrifice essential internet services for businesses that aren't them and people who they don't care about (like their customers or even non-pirate customers - if they think those people even exist...)

Re: Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

You do realise that proxies and VPNs have many legitimate uses as well, right? A great many businesses use them to allow workers to work from home, improve network scalability and reduce long distance phone charges and support costs. My employer makes heavy use of secure VPNs.

Activists in countries like Iran and Syria use them to communicate with the outside world and get their message out.

You seem keen to demonise technology but please bear in mind that ALL technology is neutral

Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

If every proxy and VPN are blocked around the world and your IP gets banned from accessing the site by the moderator then you will not be able to post your comments anymore on this site will you. So by your actions in wanting proxies and vpns blocked will result in you not being to post on anymore on the site but you may not like that but hey most people will be pleased that you won't be able to post on this anymore.

Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

I'm pretty sure I've read that statement in various forms on a great many Techdirt posts. Where have you been?

The good old days of the music industry weren't that good. The brick-and-mortar record store was plagued by shoplifters, mix tape makers, DJ's, and those rat bastards who buy CD's, copy them, and then return them.

No matter what industry we're talking about, there will always be people who take things for free when they should be paying for them. All the bitching in the world will never change that, but there are lots and lots of ways to address the problem that will dramatically reduce it. Techdirt happens to be a rich source of such wisdom. The "New to Techdirt" section on the front page says it all. Go read it with an open mind.

Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

You're a fool to think that there would ever be some sure thing fix. Just because technology is getting better does not mean us pirates are falling behind.

You find a way to stop something we find a way to bypass that. Who will win the answer is us and I'm not saying we're smarter but there are a hell of a lot more of us than you. Power in numbers my friend and we have that in spades.

I could give two shits about media piracy I'm not a movie/music fan but I'm a fan of information. You're inevitably pointless fight only fuels our goal of learning. You're fixes are our toys in our goals.

Piracy is creation and evolution towards the goal of free information for everyone.

Re: OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate".

"OKAY, at last you admit that "pirates are gonna pirate"."

You mean the thing that everybody's been saying here for years, and in fact underlines the basis for most of the arguments here (there's no way to stop piracy, so change business models to encourage purchases that don't suffer from its existence)? Yes, glad you could finally catch up. Maybe if you focussed on reading the articles rather than launching impotent attacks against strawman fantasies, you'd have know this for years too.

"Anyhoo, with that admission you acknowledge that knowing infringement is going on and that "pirates" -- YOUR TERM for someone who's knowingly "pirated" -- are NEVER going to pay for content."

Exactly, so they represent exactly $0 of lost revenue. Why do you insist on wasting so much time, money and effort on them rather than on increasing purchases from those who will pay?

"2nd anyhoo: once the blocking is in place, it becomes just a matter of adding IP/host name to the database, can be rolled out automatically, and will be, so the end of proxies is in sight. VPNs can be shut down by following to last known exit"

So, you have no idea how much legitimate business - much of it worth far more than the industry you bow to - uses these services? How much of the US economy you would destroy by shutting down these services? What a surprise, moron troll is technically clueless as well as a general asshole...